1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computer systems for video security and operations management, and in particular relates to generating, executing and reporting remote video surveillance audits and guard tours.
2. Background of the Technology
It is known in the art to ensure the safety and protection of personnel, facilities and property using remote video audits and guard tours. The structure of known remote video audits and guard tours generally involves a guard/auditor monitoring remote electronic surveillance equipment from a central location. The known video audits and guard tours, however, typically require constant monitoring of communications channels to/from the remote sites by the guard or auditor at a central location and/or review of large numbers of images or clips from the remote electronic equipment over slow network connections. The disadvantages of such systems are that they are labor intensive and involve delays, operator efficiency is low due in part to lack of user-friendly machine interfaces, and report generation is cumbersome and slow. Further, the system setup must be performed in-house for each set of stores, facilities or other locations that need monitoring.
Additional disadvantages of known remote video audits and guard tours include lack of effective mechanisms allowing company management departments or other customers to view what the guard or auditor witnessed, or to receive summaries of the guards' or auditors' findings and classifications.
Furthermore, while digital video recorders have been replacing analog tape based systems as the recorders for security systems due to their increased reliability, remote viewing functionality has only recently become standard for the newer analog or digital close cable television systems. Most of the digital remote viewing products are either “point-to point” systems that require PC-based software and can only access one location at a time, or web-based digital video recorders (DVRs), each of which requires a unique web address, thus preventing single web site access to multiple units. Additionally, most of these products work with only one specific DVR brand.
The foregoing disadvantages, among others, make it difficult for corporate loss prevention departments to overcome the daunting challenge of efficiently and effectively monitoring their remote offices, facilities and stores. While companies are able to purchase surveillance equipment with some remote viewing capabilities, the currently available surveillance equipment cannot be managed from a single source. In other words, the available surveillance equipment is not networked into a single system, which in turn leads to management and administration difficulties.
There is an unmet need in the art, therefore, for improved methods and systems for remote audits and guard tours, which allow remote audits/guard tours of numerous locations, while reducing the need for constant human monitoring, increasing operator efficiency, providing user-friendly machine interfaces, and ensuring easy and fast generation of audit and guard tour reports.
There is a further need for developing a networked method and system for providing quick and easy access to video information over low bandwidth connections from all video monitoring locations on a single central website through a web browser, while at the same time seamlessly managing a plurality of users accessing numerous locations and providing capabilities for creating, executing and reporting remote guard tours and audits.
There is yet a further need in the art for an integrated application solution that provides for easy access and management of video data from numerous surveillance sites, regardless of the brand of hardware equipment used.
There is yet a further need for developing remote video audits and guard tours that provide effective mechanisms which allow company management departments or other customers to view what the guard or auditor witnessed and to receive summaries of the guards' or auditors' findings and classifications.
There is a further need in the art for developing a networked method and system for remote video audits and guard tours, which would eliminate the need for performing in-house setups for the sets of stores, facilities or other locations that need monitoring.